THE LOCKROY EPISODE 127
could not hesitate to expand her fleet, for there would be
danger of the French fleet being overmatched by that of
Germany/5 The German fleet he regarded as a miracle of
modem equipment and all-round efficiency, in many respects
superior even to the English. " Of course/' he added, " the
German fleet is still young and England has the first fleet in
the world. Dockyards like Portsmouth and Woolwich are
tremendously impressive."
In the year 1900 Lockroy had visited the three most
important naval bases in Germany: Kiel, Wilhelrnshaven
and Danzig, as well as the Schichau wharfs at Elbing. He had
admired the masterly fashion in which the expedition to China
had been organised. He praised the officers of the German
Navy as smart and efficient, and the other ratings too. He had
been considerably gratified to find that Germany had adopted
many innovations he had himself introduced into the French
Navy when he was minister. Indeed, he found that she had
borrowed many features from other countries, so that the
organisation of the German Navy was now second to none
and was in many ways a model to the rest of the world.
Lockroy was also keeping touch with the German military
organisation in all its brandies, and in addition was studying
Germany as a state organism and as a storehouse of informa-
tion. Let us see what he himself says: " In the year 1870
my father fell as a volunteer in the battalion I myself com-
manded, shot in the leg at my side. Since then I had seen no
Germans. Moreover, it was hard for me to accept a German
prosperity arising out of our defeat." Nevertheless, he
travelled in Germany, remembering that France's defeats in
1870 were due in great degree to ignorance, which had caused
her to underrate Germany.
This versatile man studied Germany from many angles.
The superficial journalist, who of necessity cannot always be
exact, betrays himself in the book on Germany, Du Weser a la
Vistuk. I^ettres sur la marine allemande. He visits Berlin
and writes: " The door of German Protestantism does not
keep the Jews from exercising a dominant influence on all
kinds of business, including politics. All the Jews in Berlin
are baptised and have been for a long time. Yet they form a
society apart, and marry only among themselves. No one
thinks of harming or persecuting them on account of their